Headstones on World War II military graves in Libya’s eastern city of Benghazi have again been desecrated in the second such attack in four months, local officials said on Saturday. “On Thursday, Christian graves were desecrated for a second time in Benghazi,” Mohammed al-Quzairi of the local security committee told AFP, adding that the
The Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) said on Sunday it was arranging a $65 million credit facility for Egypt to help the country trade with other Arab states, as political instability threatens Cairo with a balance of payments crisis. The credit line will be extended through a trade financing program run by the AMF, central
Voter turnout in the first day of the second round of the presidential elections in Egypt was low, compared to the first day of the first round. In this final round, only two candidates remain in the race: the secular Ahmed Shafiq, and the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi. The ruling military council officially
Rumor had it a devious conspiracy was afoot: Egyptians voting for a new president Saturday were being tricked into using pens with disappearing ink so their choice on the ballot would vanish before it was counted. “Is this the right pen?” an old man in a traditional galabeya robe shouted, holding one up to
The police's National Unit for International Investigations has arrested an Eritrean citizen, Kabri Gabrius, who lives in Tel Aviv, on suspicion of assisting a terror group. Gabrius, 22, is suspected of involvement in a terror group that operates in the Sinai Desert. He is believed to have been raising funds and collecting intelligence information
A car bomb ripped through a market area in a northwest Pakistan tribal town near the Afghan border on Saturday, killing 25 people including three children, officials said. “The death toll is 25,” from the blast in the main bazaar of Landi Kotal in Khyber tribal district, local administration chief Mutahir Zeb told AFP,
The United Nations and South Sudanese authorities said on Friday they were investigating reports police had abducted and raped women during a disarmament program in the east of the troubled African nation. South Sudan declared independence from Sudan a year ago under a 2005 peace agreement that ended decades of civil war. But its
The dissolution of the Egyptian parliament elected after last year’s overthrow of veteran president Hosni Mubarak has alarmed investors who fear the country will now hurtle towards a balance of payments crisis and currency collapse. Growth in North Africa’s biggest economy has flatlined in the 16 months since the toppling of Mubarak’s 30-year regime.
The Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Mursi, who faces ex-premier Ahmed Shafiq in a two-day presidential run-off, has pledged that Egypt under his leadership will be inclusive, courting secular and Christian voters. A retiring individual, bearded and bespectacled, Mursi vows to uphold the goals of last year's revolution that ousted Hosni Mubarak and to share power
Fitch Ratings downgraded Egypt’s sovereign credit rating deeper into junk status on Friday, citing the rising political crisis after the nation’s Supreme Constitutional court annulled parliamentary elections. The rating, cut by one notch to B-plus from BB-minus, has a negative outlook, meaning there is a greater than 50 percent chance of more downgrades in
